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Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (born September 27, 1950) is a Japanese-American actor, sports physiologist, martial artist, and stuntman. Tagawa has appeared on television in Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Encounter at Farpoint"; 1987), Thunder in Paradise (1995), Nash Bridges (1996), Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding (2003), and Heroes (2007). His roles have also included the voice of Sin Tzu for the video game Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu, Earth Alliance security officer Morishi in Babylon 5 ("Convictions"), the evil soul-stealing sorcerer Shang Tsung in a film adaptation of the video game Mortal Kombat (a role he would reprise 18 years later for Mortal Kombat Legacy), and the evil mastermind Heihachi Mishima in the film adaptation of Tekken. He is currently featured as Nobusuke Tagomi in The Man in the High Castle, the Amazon original series adaptation of the novel by Philip K. Dick. Early life Tagawa was born in Tokyo, Japan, the son of a Japanese actress and a Japanese-American father who served in the United States Army and was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Fort Polk, Louisiana, and Fort Hood, Texas. His mother tongues are English and Japanese. Tagawa was raised in various cities. He and his family finally settled in Southern California, where he began acting in high school while attending Duarte High School. He attended the University of Southern California, and was an exchange student in Japan. Career His breakthrough as an actor came when he was cast as the Eunuch Chang in The Last Emperor (1987). In 1989, he played an undercover agent of the Hong Kong Narcotics Board in the James Bond film Licence to Kill. In 1991, he starred alongside Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee in the action film Showdown in Little Tokyo, where he played the role of Yakuza boss Yoshida. He also starred alongside James Hong and Jeff Speakman in the same year in the film The Perfect Weapon, where he played Kai, an assistant to the Korean mafia families. He appeared in the movie Mortal Kombat (1995) as the shapeshifting sorcerer Shang Tsung, and as the deadly pirate leader Kabai Sengh in The Phantom (1996). Tagawa is among the actors, producers and directors interviewed in the documentary The Slanted Screen (2006), directed by Jeff Adachi, about the representation of Asian and Asian-American men in Hollywood. Tagawa played Heihachi Mishima in Tekken, the film adaptation of the video game franchise. In 2006, he provided the voice of Brushogun in Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo. He was in the film Johnny Tsunami (1999) and its sequel Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board (2007). In between those two films, Tagawa played Attar's mentor Krull in Tim Burton's version of Planet of the Apes (2001). Tagawa reprised his role as Shang Tsung for the second season of the YouTube series Mortal Kombat: Legacy. This new version of the character was unrelated to Tagawa's previous work as Tsung. He played Satoshi Takeda in Revenge, a powerful CEO in Japan and Emily Thorne's former mentor in her quest for revenge. In season 2, Tagawa took over the role from Hiroyuki Sanada, who was unable to continue due to scheduling conflicts. In 2015, Tagawa was cast as one of the lead characters, Nobusuke Tagomi, the Trade Minister of the Pacific States of America in Amazon's The Man in the High Castle. Also in November 2015, both he and Taimak (The Last Dragon) were honorees for the Fists of Legends Legacy Award at the Urban Action Showcase & Expo. Personal life In 2013, Tagawa started working with Orthodox Christian actors Pyotr Mamonov and Ivan Okhlobystin. On November 12, 2015, he was baptized as Panteleymon in the Russian Orthodox Joy of All Who Sorrow church in Moscow. Filmography Film Television Web Video games External links *Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa on IMDb Category:1950 births Category:American male actors of Japanese descent Category:American male karateka Category:American male film actors Category:American male television actors Category:American male video game actors Category:American male voice actors Category:American people of Japanese descent Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy Category:Naturalised citizens of Russia Category:Japanese emigrants to the United States Category:Military brats Category:Living people Category:People from Tokyo Category:Russian Orthodox Christians from the United States Category:University of Southern California alumni